JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli soldier was stabbed and wounded in the West Bank on Friday by a Palestinian assailant who was then shot and killed, officials said.
The military said the attacker approached a group of soldiers and stabbed one of them before a soldier shot the assailant. The wounded soldier was taken to a hospital for treatment. The army said the stabber was “neutralized” and declined to be more specific.
The Palestinian Health Ministry later said the assailant had been killed and that the military was holding the body. It did not identify the attacker.
Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks in recent years. A series of deadly attacks earlier this year killed 19 people.
The Israeli military has meanwhile carried out near-nightly raids in the West Bank that it says are aimed at dismantling militant networks. The Palestinians say the operations are aimed at maintaining Israel’s 55-year military occupation of territories they want for an independent state.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and has built more than 130 settlements that are home to nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers. Some 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which the Palestinians want as the main part of their future state.
Friday’s attack occurred near the sprawling Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, which is next to the city of Hebron — home to more than 200,000 Palestinians.
Israel considers the West Bank to be the historical and biblical heartland of the Jewish people. The Palestinians view the settlements as the main obstacle to peace and most countries consider them illegal.
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